


Sleeper mission: Bosnia, 1914

by a_walking_shadow



Category: Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 14:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19993696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_walking_shadow/pseuds/a_walking_shadow
Summary: After a string of crises, several Celestial Intervention Agency agents are sent to 20th Century Earth, in order to keep an eye on things.





	Sleeper mission: Bosnia, 1914

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elden-12](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=elden-12).



> This is one of two stories I wrote after a discussion with elden-12 on Tumblr, who told me about a discarded idea for the Big Finish Audion "The Kingmaker". In his words: "the CIA had a sort of group that killed themselves to regenerate looking like historical figures who'd been wiped out by time travel shenanigans and taking their place".  
> I loved the idea so much I wrote two things in response to it, then promptly forgot about both of them, and they sat on my computer for almost 6 months.

‘Coordinator? Gavrilo Princip has food poisoning.’

‘Hmm?’

‘I know you heard me the first time. Gavrilo Princip has food poisoning. As in, a well-meaning time traveller has gone back to 1914 and poisoned his food.’

Narvin doesn’t even glance away from his screen. ‘Then assign a sleeper.’

‘That’s the problem, sir. We don’t have one. Not locally, at any rate.’

‘Gavrilo Princip…’ The screen flickers for a moment, throwing up information in one of the Latin alphabets from Earth- case file, presumably. A moment later, it resolves itself back into Gallifreyan. Narvin skims it briefly, then flicks his gaze to the side, and the screen shifts back to whatever it was before.

‘20th Century Earth? We have sleepers all over 20th Century Earth. Surely one of them is available.’

‘No, sir. Most of them are stationed about thirty years forward in local chronometry, and they’re all busy dealing with simultaneous Zygon and Draconian incursions. At this rate, we’re going to need to replace every single member of Westminster, and all the leaders of the Nazi Party, within the next fourteen microspans.’

‘Since when did the Zygons and the Draconians have time travel?’

‘No idea, sir. I’m not working with the APC net. Would you like me to find out?’

‘Two major space-faring powers have somehow acquired time travel capabilities and I don’t know how? Of course I want you to find out!’

‘And Gavrilo Princip?’

Narvin sighs, and punches a button on his screen. Several faces pop up. The newest recruits. After what seems like an eternity, Coordinator Narvin selects two of the images. ‘These two. Probably the best of a bad lot.’

‘Two of them, sir? Princip has been the only casualty so far, and the matrix isn’t predicting any additional attacks. The time traveller seems to have left.’

‘I want both of them on the ground. Hopefully they’ll cancel out any idiocy the other commits. We’ll need to force a regen for whoever ends up as Princip… probably best to get this one- Trave, is it? For that role. The other one- Karla- she’s slightly more competent, so she can probably pass as the Countess without a regen. She’s not seen in public much anyway.’

‘You think we need to replace the Countess too?’ 

‘With the scale of interference we’re looking at here, Trave will need all the help on the ground she can get. It’s highly unlikely that this will be an isolated incident. Trave will need to stay as Princip for four more years, but if anyone else tries something clever, it’ll help to have another sleeper on the ground.’

‘Of course, sir.’

‘I don’t believe this,’ Trave mutters. ‘They’re going to force us to spend several years on a Level Two planet? In prison, in my case. Surely we could just use a clone or something!’

Karla rolls her eyes. ‘At least you’re only wasting one regen on this bloody thing. You get to shoot me later today. Then I’ll need to be prepared to take another sleeper role! In the middle of one of the biggest conflicts of human history- well, it’s bound to happen, sooner or later. I’m going to waste two lives on this. It’s a travesty, is what it is.’

They fall silent, watching the rise and fall of the time column in the TARDIS they’ve been issued- the TARDIS doesn’t seem to happy with this mission either.

‘You know’, Karla comments, ‘the CIA is supposed to be subservient to the High Council. But I really doubt this is sanctioned.’

Trave glances over at her. His new face is… well, _square_ is by far the best adjective to describe it, and it takes a great deal of effort for Karla not to laugh out loud. ‘How do you think they’d respond if they found out about it?’

‘Oh, probably not well’, she returns. ‘Why?’

‘I don’t think it counts as high treason if you’re informing the high council.’

‘…You know what, I think you might be right. It’s still probably a bad idea for both our health and our career prospects.’

‘Agreed. Wait until we get back, then? Try and do it a bit more subtly?’

‘Sounds like a plan. Oh, and Trave?’

‘Yeah- _why in the name of Rassilon did you just punch me in the face?_ ’

‘Payback. You aren’t getting to shoot me without paying for it somehow.’

‘… fair enough.’


End file.
